Most efficient way to use oil burner

mrbig

I am looking to optimize my heating system, I dont think it too bad at the moment but wonder could it be better, i have an oil burner running on Kerro heating Rads upstairs and underfloor heating downstairs. I have tried a couple of things but the way I am using a the moment seems to be giving me the best results. I put it on for 2 hours in the morning 7 to 9 and from 4 to 7 in the evening. the underfloor heating stays warm for many hours after the burner is off probably only droping about 1 deg every 2 hours. the rads up stairs are on thermostats. I get about 2 months from a thousand litres for a 300 m2 house.
Any comments on timings, temperature etc would be welcome.

items

Boiler efficiency is individual to each house, most important factor is heat loss. The idea is to hold onto as much heat given from heating system for as long as possible. You could spend day and night tricking around with times and temp settings only to see minimal difference between heating bills.

Insulation is the key, boiler and all heating pipes should be well insulated, doubled even tripled will help. Hot water cylinder could be insulated more depending on type of cylinder again more help. Adding some form of cylinder control will help, heating going to cylinder can be shut off when required stored water temp is reached, if you've not got cylinder control heating will race through coil non stop until boiler turns off, you could be heating cylinder above required temp.

Next up is house, walls, ceilings, roof space, windows and doors. Insulate those as best you can, any gaps around doors and windows seal them up with insulation strip.

Heating system, proper boiler service is required a service where person takes a combustion reading to make sure oil burning is giving of most energy possible. If system is open vented sealing can help, making sure system is clean, inhibited and working under good pressure helps. (1.5 to 2 bar) Making sure heating is balanced correctly helps. Any rooms that are seldom used should have rad flows closed off more than rooms used often.

Not sure how your underfloor heating is piped, it should be fed through a blending valve reducing the temp going to floor @ low temps anything from 15 to 21, try and find out how much heat going to under floor, you might be able to reduce temp going to underfloor. One thing to do is time how long it takes for floor to build up required heat then shut of heating to floor to allow to cool, find out out long heat lasts in floor. It might be possible to reduce the amount of time heating goes into floor, you'll need to do a bit of homework on that one.

Rads and boiler are tricky enough to squeeze most out of, type and location of room thermostat is important, some have stat in halls, halls are cooler than rooms, you might find your stat is still calling for heat although rooms are at required temp so moving stat into rooms of most use can help but watch out for false readings from fires, opening windows and door. Stat location is still are grey area in Ireland, anywhere else in Europe most stats are fitted in rooms of most use over cold halls, its up to you on this one.

Its possible to make some savings by running boiler longer at a slightly lower temp. Burner works hardest when heating water up from dead cold, if you can find a way to keep heating water from dropping to coldest temp with out having heating on to much I find it works well, by dropping boiler temp down a little you could squeeze an extra 10 to 15 min bursts of heat during day just to keep boiler temps up from dead cold.

Everyone has their own little ways, few more here might add to list.

Best of luck with it.

Thread

Hi,

Thanks to 'Items' for the comprehensive reply to the question.
Are you saying that I could try 10/15 minute blasts of heat from the boiler to use it save oil but also get enough heat to be comfortable in the house.

Does it make sense to put it on for 10 mins every hour during the day and a bit less at night?

mrbig

My Appolagies to Items for not seeing your excellent reply before now,
Your comments have proved to be quite accurate.
The house has a decent level of insulation but I agree everything needs to be looked at as it all adds up.
I had reduced the underfloor temp over the last few months co-incidently as I also have a wood stove in my Kitchen and guessed that using the underfloor heating to prevent the house getting cold ie. below 18deg may be better than making it warm about 23 deg. (predicting heat requirements using underfloor is impossible)
this has definitly made a big differnce, I have used only 800 L of kerosene since October despite the extreme cold. I am using less energy to heat the underfloor but the house is still at a comfortable heat level. (I still need the extra heat from the stove to boost the livingroom/Kitchen to a cosy level)
I would reckon a saving of 1/3 on previous years. I have been running my boiler for 10 minutes each hour for the last month also
because of the extreme cold, it was plenty to keep up temp in house over night.

slavetothegrind

Where art thou items, was interested to see how he got on out on his own?

Hopefully doin ok.

Donie75

Sorry for jumping in on your thread but have an interest in this area also. I renovated an old 1950's house last year. I drylined it and put in new windows and doors and insulated the attic. I am still using the old kerosene boiler. I got TRV's and 2 zones (upstairs & downstairs) installed. The house is great and it's fairly cosy but I'm wondering if I have it set up correctly. I have the heat coming on for 30 mins in the morning then I'm gone all day and I have it set to come on at 5pm so it's warm when I get home between 5.30 and 6pm. Should I just start with the downstairs zone? And then add the upstairs later. I have TRV's in most rooms and I had them all on 5 (hottest). I have reduced some of them in the bedrooms. Downstairs I have a very warm kitchen/dining area and a very warm sittingroom but my hall is freezing despite having a double rad. If the rad was old would it less efficient?

Also, someone mentioned that the heating uses a lot of the energy on start up by heating the water tank. If the water tank was preheated by the immersion would that help? I know the immersion is expensive to run but I'm just curious.